The Rewards of Adopting an Older Dog

The nine-year-old Golden Retriever was a mess. Her nails were so long, they curved around and made walking difficult, her coat was filthy, and her ears were so badly infected that her veterinarian recommended surgery. Now she was being given up for adoption. Would anyone want her?

The odds were against it, but here’s a holistic makeover story in which an old dog gets a new name, a new look, a new home, and an exciting new life.

The story begins nine years ago in Rockland County, New York, northwest of New York City, when a man bought a puppy and named her Angel. His wife wasn’t happy because she preferred a clean house, so Angel spent most of her life in a crate. After two years, the owner’s wife begged a friend to take the dog. The friend didn’t want a dog, either, but she felt so sorry for Angel that she agreed to adopt her.

Angel received annual vaccinations and treatment for ear infection flare-ups, but trips to the vet were her only outings.

In 2007, circumstances in the owner’s life changed and she was no longer able to keep Angel. Through a relative, she turned for help to dog trainer Nancy Strouss at People Training for Dogs in Nyack, New York.

“People are often judged harshly for giving up a dog, especially an older one,” says Strouss. “But in some cases, such as when their own life is in crisis and the dog is neglected, it’s the most loving thing a person can do. This was the case with Angel’s owner. I give her a lot of credit for wanting to find Angel a better home.”

As she often does, Strouss began making inquiries among her students and acquaintances on behalf of the older dog, whom she had not yet met. She was already trying to find a new home for another rescued Golden Retriever, a two-year-old female.

“The two-year-old was placed by the end of the week,” Strouss says. “Calls kept coming in about her and each time I said that she’s been placed, I would ask if the caller might be interested in a nine-year-old.”

But almost everyone who had called to inquire about the young dog had recently lost an older Golden. After tearfully telling Strouss about their dogs, they declined further information about the older dog, saying they couldn’t deal with the possibility of losing another dog any time soon.

A host of angels
Then a call came in from Mohit SantRam, a 32-year-old computer programmer/designer in New York City. He, too, was inquiring about the two-year-old, but to Strouss’s surprise, he said yes, he would consider the nine-year-old instead. “We talked on the phone and e-mailed endlessly that week. I needed to be sure he would provide a good home for her and he needed to be sure he was ready for the responsibility and financial commitment.”

Angel’s veterinarian had recommended surgery at a cost of $300 per ear, plus post-operative pain medication for several months. However, the financial burden of the veterinary care that Angel needed would not fall completely on the adopter’s shoulders. After hearing her endlessly mention Angel in classes, three of Strouss’s advanced students offered to sponsor Angel by paying her veterinary bills. They wanted to help make her more adoptable.

Note that neither Strouss (the dog’s champion) nor Strouss’s students (the benefactors), nor SantRam (the potential owner) had met Angel yet! But there was something about the dog’s story that deeply touched them all.

All of Angel’s angels came together on Sunday, April 22, 2007.

The owner and a friend brought Angel to Strouss’s training facility for an evaluation. “When I saw her, she was filthy – so dirty that I had to wash my hands after petting her,” describes Strouss. “Her hair was falling out all over the floor, her coat was very thick from not being brushed, and her undercoat flew all over the place whenever I touched her.” The dog’s ears were so badly infected, inflamed, swollen, and dirty that in one ear, Strouss couldn’t even see into the canal.

Also, Angel’s nails were so long that they curved all the way around. “I don’t know how she could walk,” says Strouss. “It must have been painful.”

Within ten minutes of meeting Angel, Strouss was sitting on the floor cutting her nails as the dog lay calmly beside her. “She didn’t mind at all,” says Strouss. “She just waited while I cut the nails on all four feet.”

Angel might not have won a beauty contest, but she had a terrific personality.

“Cutting her nails was certainly a test of temperament,” says Strouss, “and then I noticed how little she interacted with her owner. After I cut her nails, she followed me everywhere I went, always trying to catch my attention with intense eye contact. She obviously longed for attention.”

Later that day SantRam arrived, and he and Strouss took Angel for a walk all around Nyack.

“Since Mo lives in New York City,” she says, “we wanted to be sure Angel could handle all the noise and activity of city life. It was a beautiful Sunday, so Nyack was alive with all kinds of people and things going on.

“Angel loved every minute of our walk. Noises didn’t bother her, she loved people stopping to say hello to her, and she walked confidently through crowds of people on narrow sidewalks. We passed a couple of dogs and she looked at them with interest but nothing more. We also observed how well she walked up and down the steep stairs at our school, which was important because Mo owns a co-op that’s a third-floor walk-up in Manhattan’s East Village.”

Makeover begins
Strouss and SantRam put a plan into place. Strouss made arrangements for Angel to go to a groomer for a thorough makeover, and to be examined by a holistic veterinarian. If all went well, Angel would go straight home with SantRam.

On April 28, holistic veterinarian Stacey Hershman examined Angel. “At 87 pounds,” says Dr. Hershman, “Angel was overweight, and I suspected she had a low thyroid condition. She had a couple of rubbery cysts, one on her back and one behind her right elbow, both the size of an olive, and four lick granulomas, one at the top of each foot. No doubt years of boredom combined with her skin’s itchy, oily seborrhea contributed to those raised, brownish red granulomas. She also had some pain in both hips, was slow to get up, and limped slightly.”

Dr. Hershman took blood samples for a panel of tests and gave Angel a homeopathic remedy for her ear and skin symptoms pending thyroid test results. She told SantRam about the problems that can result from the combination vaccines Angel had received so often, explaining that many of her symptoms are common in over-vaccinated dogs.

In addition to avoiding future vaccinations, she recommended that Angel be switched from her diet of inexpensive kibble and canned food to a well-balanced raw diet by gradually adding raw food to what she was used to eating. Her improved diet and increased exercise should help the dog lose weight.

Giving Angie an occasional bone to chew would also help remove the plaque on her teeth. Dr. Hershman recommended a teaspoon of Carlson brand cod liver oil in the morning and a tablespoon of organic coconut oil in the evening to support Angel’s immune system, skin, and ears.

“Angel’s ears looked awful,” says Dr. Hershman, “but she definitely did not need surgery. Her right ear was worse than the left. The right pinnae was thickened with scar tissue and filled with a black, tarry, yeasty smelling exudate. The left ear was yeasty and brown.” Dr. Hershman flushed the right ear and filled it with Pellitol ointment, as she described in “Chronic Ear Infections in Canines” (June 2004). Dr. Hershman prefers Pellitol to other ear cleaners because as the ointment dries and begins to fall out, which takes about a week, it painlessly takes ear debris with it.

“I showed Mo how to clean the ointment out after one week,” she says, “and after that he will clean her ears twice a week with Dermapet MalAcetic Otic ear cleanser. I like Dermapet because it’s a gentle, hypoallergenic liquid that helps keep the ear’s pH in proper balance, which helps prevent the growth of Pseudomonas bacteria as well as yeast and fungi.”

For routine ear cleaning, Dr. Hershman does not recommend filling the ear canal with liquid and then having the dog shake it out. “Shaking the head never removes all of the liquid,” she explains, “and you want the ears to be as dry as possible. I show all my clients how to clean their dogs’ ears by dampening the end of a cotton swab with cleaning solution and using that to clean the ears. This is the perfect follow-up treatment after Pellitol lifts and removes debris from deep within the ears.”

The blood test confirmed Dr. Hersh-man’s suspicion that Angel had an underactive thyroid.

“At our next visit, I’ll recheck Angel’s skin and ears and start her on Soloxine, a thyroid medication. I also recommend Glycoflex III, a supplement containing glucosamine, MSM (methyl-sulfonyl-methane), green-lipped mussel, and other anti-inflammatory ingredients to help relieve her stiffness and hip pain. If necessary, we’ll start her on acupuncture or consider other alternatives.”

Fortunately, the laundry list of suggested treatments did not discourage SantRam, and following Dr. Hershman’s exam, he happily loaded Angel into his car for the drive to her new home.

A whole new world
To make her transformation complete, SantRam changed her name from Angel to Angie – although he sometimes affectionately calls her “Angie McTubbs” – a nickname that will probably fall by the wayside as she loses excess weight and gains muscle tone. SantRam works from home, which means that Angie has companionship most of the day. “She seems to be adjusting well to her new surroundings,” he says.

“I try to take her out as much as possible. She loves to walk. Yesterday morning we walked about two miles, over the Manhattan Bridge and back. She loved looking out at the river. I can tell she’s a water dog. A friend of mine walked her in the afternoon to Washington Square Park, and Angie pulled toward the fountain and rushed into the water.”

Like most Goldens, Angie loves people. “She gets excited when I come home, and she’s disappointed when I leave,” says SantRam. “She already has a huge fan club among my friends. Some of them walk her and take care of her when I’m not able to. We’re being careful not to overexert her. A friend gave me a water bottle that she drinks from when we go out for walks. Everyone is making Angie feel welcome and looking out for her.”

After hearing about the dog from one of Nancy Strouss’s students, Lorna Paxton, owner of Happy Tails Canine Spa in Los Angeles, sent Angie a gift of canine aromatherapy product samples, including shampoos and conditioners (these products were featured in “Aromatherapy For Dogs,” December 2004).Now that she’s been groomed, Angie looks and smells much better. SantRam brushed Angie daily for the first ten days, removing a mountain of dead hair. “I bought a new vacuum cleaner to keep all the hair cleaned up,” he says. “Now her coat seems to have settled down, and she’s just shedding normally.”

Any change of diet can trigger symptoms of detoxification, and to help Angie’s body adjust to its new fare, SantRam added some of the supplements recommended in “Canine Allergies and Your Dog’s Health,” May 2007, including:

-Seacure, a deep sea fermented white fish powder that is predigested, repairs tissue, helps improve skin and coat, and speeds the healing of leaky gut syndrome (a common factor in allergies and yeast infections)

-Willard Water concentrate, which can be diluted in a dog’s drinking water, and helps improve the digestion and assimilation of nutrients, which (in turn) helps the body heal itself

-Probiotics or “friendly” bacteria, which play an important role in the body’s immune system, fending off pathogens and helping to make the body a poor host for yeasts, fungi, viruses, harmful bacteria, and parasites

Angie’s checkups
Four weeks after Angie’s adoption, she and SantRam returned to People Training for Dogs, where Sue Ann Lesser, DVM, conducts a monthly chiropractic clinic.

“Angie’s alignment was off in her front left elbow,” reports Dr. Lesser, “and her pelvis on the right side was high, with her hip jammed, and the stifle and femur on her left side turned in.

“Angie required some minor adjustments to bring her body back into balance, but all things considered, especially considering her history, Angie moves remarkably well. She has no major problems. Nothing grated or clunked when I checked her over, she doesn’t have serious arthritis, and her coat has a good quality color. She’s what horse people call good stock.”

To help Angie develop muscle in her thighs, Dr. Lesser encouraged SantRam to continue taking Angie on long walks. She also showed him a simple exercise that would help build Angie’s muscle strength and muscular awareness. With the fingertips of each hand over her hip joints, SantRam pushes Angie’s hips gently to the left and right and back again for 10 seconds several times a day.

“We call this the hip sway,” says Dr. Lesser. “It doesn’t look like much, but it’s a neurologically powerful exercise that builds both muscle strength and muscle awareness by stimulating mechanoreceptors or proprioceptors, increasing her body awareness. In older dogs, this awareness is especially important, as it helps prevent injury.”

Dr. Lesser noted that problems with the first cervical vertebra and ear infections often go together, so she expects that Angie’s adjustments will help her ear problems clear up. She also explained that lick granulomas often occur when an area tingles, aches, or is sore or out of alignment.

Dr. Lesser showed SantRam how to massage Angie’s feet daily by working the stiff areas and gently mobilizing the foot. He already massages the area around her ears.

“I’m really happy that Angie is living in Manhattan,” says Dr. Lesser, “where she has ample opportunity to exercise and also receive the mental stimulation that the city offers. Both are important for good dog health.”

Rescue rewards
Anyone who has ever helped a dog find a new home knows how rewarding the experience can be. In her 30 years as a dog trainer and Golden Retriever owner, Nancy Strouss has helped place more dogs than she can remember. Most were Golden Retrievers, plus a few Labs, other breeds, and mixed breeds.

“I evaluate the dog’s temperament, assess any behavioral or health problems, counsel the current owners to see if I can help them keep the dog, and then begin the process of getting the word out,” she says. “I return every phone call and answer every e-mail. It’s a lot of work, but finding the right home always makes the effort worthwhile.

“I’ve been fortunate to find some exceptional people to adopt these deserving dogs. One of the Labs that I placed a couple of years ago had been living in a crate in a garage, the result of a divorce, and was being given only two short walks per day. Today she is competing in agility, is titled in the advanced classes, and is one of the dogs to watch at trials! Whenever she sees me at trials, she drags her owner over to me – and I only met her once, when I evaluated her.

“A little mixed breed lived with me for a short time while I taught her obedience commands and good house manners. Eventually she became a hearing dog through special training at Green Chimneys in Brewster, New York, and she was placed with a deaf person.”

Strouss receives many photos of newly placed dogs sleeping contentedly in their new owners’ beds or favorite chairs, swimming in a pond or the ocean, running on the beach, or playing with other dogs or kids.

“Considering the dreadful lives most of these dogs led before, it feels really good knowing they are enjoying themselves and bringing so much happiness to the new people in their lives. Many of them recently lost a much-loved older dog or in some cases are living with a dog for the first time. This is one of those things in life where feeling good is the best reward.”

At the end of her adoption day, Angie, Mo SantRam, and a friend left Nyack for their new life in New York City.

“After lots of hugs and good wishes for all,” says Strouss, “the freshly groomed Angie, with her new lead and collar, looked beautiful and happy. I admit there were tears in my eyes as they walked away and I saw Angie turn her head and look up at me. Just for a moment, it was like she was saying thank you. And I’m sure she was.”

CJ Puotinen is author of The Encyclopedia of Natural Pet Care, Natural Remedies for Dogs and Cats, and other books. She lives in New York with her husband, a Labrador, and a tabby cat.